Discussions

The agenda for Stream Asia 2018 is in your hands. There are six session times a day, hosted in nine different meeting spaces. Each session runs for 1 hour (give or take) and all sessions are led by you, the Stream participants. Here's how it works:

Before Stream - Share your idea - Create a New Discussion by clicking on the blue ‘add idea’ button on the left of this page

Before Stream - Invite others to join you - you can see the participants list at the Participants page.

At Stream - Book a slot - when you arrive on site, write your discussion on the Big Boards

The Stream team is on hand to help. Please get in touch if you'd like to talk an idea through before posting, or would like help finding some co-hosts.

Sandip Tarkas

Songdew

Independent music: a glorious future awaits. Why Ddemocratization of music is great news for brands

In India popular music has been booked at the hoop with films across India. Due to some Key New trends in Bollywood and other Indian film centres, this connection is at its weakest and the time to be an independent musician in India is now! Let's talk about why brands should be thrilled at this prospect of popular music finally divorcing Bollywood.......

Digital divides or unites

Lara Brownlow

LinkedIn

Could a CEO be part time?

Women held under a quarter (24%) of senior roles across the world in 2016—an increase of only 3% from 2011. While most companies have a policy and strategy on diversity we are still not seeing the strides and results we need to. Rather than a focus on quotas, and internal programs could it be as simple as building a flexible working culture from top down. How could job-share, part-time and working from home are all become normal work arrangements on offer, not by individual request, and not exclusively for junior roles.
As an industry fuelled by creative solutions and technology.. Could we lead this shift?

Anand Gandhi

The Biology of Ideas

Byron Perry

Coconuts

Facebook, fake news, trolls, and bots

Social media, especially Facebook, has become increasingly hijacked by fake news, extreme political movements, and troll/bot armies. The Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, and India have been particularly hard hit in our region. What responsibility do advertisers and (legitimate) publishers have to combat this destructive online phenomenon? And how can they do it?

Animesh Misra

Hooq India Private Ltd.

If happiness is a brand in the digital world. How would you quantitatively measure its performance?

Blending emotion into a performance plane is a challenging way to discover the different dimensions of happiness. In the quest to discover happiness it creates an attribution platform in the mind which on a real time basis emphasises the life time value of it.

The Final Frontier

Gregory Ollivier

Microsoft BING

The impact of diversity & inclusion in the workforce : A view from the Microsoft corner office

The importance of diversity and inclusion cannot be overstated, both as a societal and business mandate – diverse teams not only perform better but are more empathetic and better in tune with consumers. Over the last couple of years, diversity and inclusion have been industry buzzwords but has there been much progress made in our industries? And have brands learned anything? Please join me for an open and honest dialogue in a safe space. Let’s have a great discussion on moving our industry forward.

Aniket Sawant

Mindshare

Time Spent vs Time Well Spent - Managing Ethics in designing Technology

Tristan Harris, who is known as "the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience" is proponent of creating Humane technologies. He has coined the term "Time Well Spent" addressing the issue of how ethics in algorithms can help Social Media be Social again.
But the underlying issue is ,as Media companies along with advertisers are trying to gain maximum attention of audiences, social fabric of societies are at stake!
How can we as professionals from this industry help address giving the power back to the Consumers and ensure Time Well Spent as a key Metric of Success for Brands?

Prem Narayan

Ogilvy India

What won't change in the communications business in the next 5 years.

Jeff Bezos said
"If you want to build a successful, sustainable business, don't ask yourself what could change in the next ten years that could affect your company. Instead, ask yourself what won't change, and then put all your energy and effort into those things.'
Are we spending too much time on 'What is or will change?'
What should we invest in?

Vasuta Agarwal

InMobi

The data dominance era - when ad platforms know you better than your family does

Cookie stitching, User id tracking, Location signals, Demog data,User persona, Alexa , Siri and so forth- How much do ad platforms know about you and your daily habits. If an average Indian spends 4.5-6 hours on his mobile handset consuming various kinds of content, shopping, searching , applying for jobs, filtering his photos, registering himself on interest based apps/sites - are we entering an era where ad platforms and advertisers know more about you than your own family?
In the future, when data access becomes democratic and a hygiene factor, how will you deal with the responsibility of probably knowing a user better than their family ? How will you create advertising that informs and doesn’t intrude ?

Saurabh Pandit

Adobe

Digital Story Telling - What's more valuable - data in story or story in data ?

We spend more time with our Digital devices than with humans. Story telling is effective because our TG is more relaxed, engaged & receptive. Also, it is their story & they remember how you make them feel rather what you have told them.
Let's discuss the role of Art, Science & Platform to figure the best way to create magic.

Lulu Raghavan

Landor

Design Thinking: Does it live up to the hype?

Design Thinking is the one of the latest buzzwords in business. It is undeniably trendy and it is everywhere.
Has it lost significance by overuse and hype?
Or has it created enough value for some to merit consideration by all?
Love it or hate it, come join the debate.

Rabe Iyer

Byron Sharp and Ehringer Bass Institute polarised the marketing world into either believers or non believers with their book "How Brands Grow" series and other numerous papers that continue to get stacked. With work spanning to two decades of strong academic research, seeks to demystify marketing as art and make it more based on science and empirical truths. The idea is think and reflect together along, on the findings, their implications on marketing and communication decisions.

Nikhil Kumar

InMobi

Wanted! A brand experience, not an ad

From the early days of grainy commercials on single-station television to today's digitally-driven era, we have come a long way. Now, although 80% of digital consumption happens over mobile, there still isn't much user-centric regulation that enables them to enjoy content of their choice to the fullest- advertising remains fairly intrusive. The demand from users is clear - give us engaging content, not advertising. What is your brand doing to answer the call to blur the lines between content and ads and create enjoyable brand experiences ?
In an ideal world, what would the wildest brand experience that you would want to create ? And why ?

Madhuri Krishnan

Truecaller

Your True Digital DNA: Mobile Identity

We have now evolved from email addresses to mobile numbers as our digital identity globally. Cutting across the multiple devices we use, the Mobile number remains the only constant that reigns as a truly personal device. Come, let's talk about what this identity means to us as marketers. What does it mean to customers today? Do consumers feel more empowered or intruded upon with this shift?
Let us discuss in detail about these handhelds that we literally hold close to our hearts!

Rohit Raj

The Glitch

Is it Ok to "steal" ideas?

Inspire is an abused word, so let's address the elephant in the room, Is it OK for us to steal an idea you saw somewhere if it fits perfectly for another brand? The much loved Ambuja cement AD was inspired from the much acclaimed Mr.W ad, but it fit well in both the cases. So is that OK?

Rise of Populism: A threat to democracy?

Mala Sekhri

Music Concepts

Has Bollywood Destroyed Indian Music ?

The Indian Music Culture is perhaps the most diverse, evolved and has existed through hundreds of years. Each region in the country has a rich tradition of folk music which is at the heart of the evolution of Indian Classical music and has further spawned multiple genres. Indian Music used to flourish as it was supported by patronage from Royalty and the artist was free to explore his talent and creativity. Today , our incredibly talented artists are giving up their profession or are looking for a "break in Bollywood". This over Bollywoodisation of our musical culture has resulted in audiences dwindling for other forms of music. It needs to be rescued.

Prasad Shejale

Logicserve Digital

How will Blockchain type of technology change Digital Marketing?

Leave aside BitCoin , the blockchain (Or similar tech) will fundamentally change what a consumer decides to share and thus who will monetise the consumer behaviour data.
How will this change for Advertisers / Publishers / Entrepreneurs / Existing established players and most importantly Consumers?

Sunita G.R.

Facebook

More Than a Message: The Evolution of Conversation.

Messaging has become all pervasive. Everyone is on messaging as it makes communication better. At the same time, messaging is also opening new doors for people and businesses. Conversational commerce is booming and is a new channel to explore & unlock growth.

How to inspire your millennial team?

Karthik Nagarajan

GroupM

Does politics actually have a meaningful impact on economy at all?

We have the right, the left, the centre, the alt right and even the left of centre. There might actually be more politico-economic philosophies than there are types of dosas, at a Saravana Bhavan. But does politics actually wield the power that it claims to, in a market economy? Do the length of terms of office even allow such an impact? Is our political discourse even more farcical when it comes to economic impact?

Manoj Mansukhani

Wunderman India

Should you be afraid of AI?

Will AI take over your job? Will AI cause mass unemployment? Will AI makes most human skills redundant? With two clear groups of people debating the pros and cons of AI - what do you think? Is it a boon or a curse?

Milan Naik

Goals101

Is "Hyperlocal" a reality? The Next Big thing?

Really keen to understand and initiate a discussion around Hyperlocal. Solutions available and credible data for driving the strategy. For driving transactions, whats most impactful and meaningful for brands? Where and When can brands influence the customers the most to drive maximum transactions? Can a curated conversation at locations be the magic wand for brands?

Clyde Nunes

Truecaller

Hello. No Thank You!

The death, resurrection and evolution of cold calling.
A discussion to look at a marketing tool that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to stop using. Why do marketers still choose to engage customers by interrupting them and why the hell are customers still responding? From calling to SMS to social media takeovers to chatbots. It's almost un-killable. With so much talk about listening to customers why are we still shouting at them? Let's meet, get together, say hello and get talking.

Virginia Sharma

LinkedIn

You have made it. Now what? Life after Success.

You have spent your entire career chasing success. Your Linkedin Profile is impressive, starting with the roles you have held, companies and markets you have worked in and skills you are known and respected for. You are, by all accounts, successful. But for a variety of reasons, you don't FEEL Successful. Is it time to look for another role? Or is something else really going on. Let's get together for a little group therapy about how you can find life after success. Hint: it involves being interesting, not just successful.

Chaitanya Chunduri

Google

Could Virtual Reality change story telling?

No longer the preserve of early adopters and video gamers, VR (and AR) are poised to take off in a big way in 2018 and beyond.
We have already seen great attempts at immersive story telling spanning content areas like movie trailers, short films, documentaries, sporting events, concerts, journalistic coverage and even ad films that leverage VR capture technologies.
Come grab a Google Cardboard from us, watch a few pcs of VR360 content and let's deliberate upon story telling in VR and what it could mean to each one of us.

Bharat Sethi

PosterGully / iDecorama

Are you ready to pay the psychological price of entrepreneurship?

For a lot of entrepreneurs, starting up is the most fulfilling life choice they ever make. But all of it comes at a huge cost. It isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. Everyone will tell you 3 out of 4 businesses fail and there’s a 90% chance your start-up won’t be around after 2 years. We all know it’s always extremely challenging. But did someone ever tell you how scary and traumatic it can be? Brace yourself.

Unny Radhakrishnan

Wavemaker

/*[co-hosted with Rob Norman]*/ Technology - It is not Disruption, but Consolidation of Economic power and there will be a social and political price to pay

Sometime back, an eminent journalist wrote (in NYT or WP) that "what is happening in Silicon Valley is not dirsuption, but institution building and an unprecedented consolidation of economic power". Wealth and power is increasingly getting consolidated with the technology giants like Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook which is already controlling our culture, commerce, manipulating our moods and influencing behaviour. They are becoming beyond government and politics.
We look at some of the recent examples which re-affirms the above view and get perspectives from everyone on the larger societal implications, role of business etc.

Shoma Narayanan

HSBC

Do kids automatically reject brands their parents use?

"That looks like something my mom would buy"
It also looks like bad news for many brands.
Kids, especially teens, are often dismissive of their parents' choices. Of course some brands like Apple appeal to all age groups, but others that are popular with people in their 30s and 40s are not likely to find favour with teens and 20-somethings. And 'youngifying' often backfires - what's the best approach to follow?

Simran Mangharam

Floh

Technology and Human Relationships - Where it works and where it fails.

Technology has facilitated incredible access. Families and friends connect seamlessly across the globe, the monetary costs of communication are incredibly low, and more humans can connect with each other, than any other time in history. But have we managed to harness the power of technology to improve our relationships? Are we using technology to have stronger bonds or is too much connectivity exhausting and isolating us?

Simran Mangharam

Floh

Why are we having less sex in the 21st Century?

Across the spectrum of age groups data indicates that as a society, we are having less sex. Is this a phase, does technology have a role to play here or has seemingly infinite access reduced it's charm? Join Ajanta De and me for an open discussion.

Ritam Bhatnagar

India Film Project

Building a community driven brand

In the recent times when digital puts across limitations on unpaid engagement, a community is a great way to connect and grow.
Over next few years, community driven brands will evolve faster and sustain much longer. Is it the right time to invest in building communities of target audiences and derive an output? Or are we still far from network driven engagements.

How Real is Artificial Intelligence?

Sanjay Tripathy

Agilio

Rethinking Happiness

As per latest research, happiness is not a constant. It's constantly evolving. Hence, what drives our happiness today often doesn’t do so tomorrow. So what matters? And what does not? More importantly, if happiness is not an optimal life goal, do you need to rethink your approach to life and work?

Anurag Bhatnagar

AKQA

Agency of the future

The advertising and communication world as we have known it is in the past. Our clients are demanding a greater depth of specialisation. Consumer behaviour and tastes are moving faster than we can imagine. Technology is shaping the future. How far can we gaze into the crystal ball and what can we see?Are we ready for it? Do we understand what we need to do to stay relevant?

Cole Sirucek

DocDoc Pte. Ltd.

“Am I too old or simply too stupid to understand crypto and why this is such a big deal?”

We will run through the role of the blockchain and its implications for media, healthcare, finance, geopolitics and whatever else you want to ask about… we will start high, go low, and then get very high at the end…☺

Fabian Von Haimburg

Hotnest Tech

China- India Relations: How will the two most populous countries on earth influence the future of the internet?

China has already established itself as a dominant digital/ big data/ platform player in the world. Is India next or will it be dominated by Chinese/ US software and hardware giants like Europe? How does China influence India's digital ecosystem and visa versa? What is the future of marketing in China and India (similarities/ differences)?

Is it time Brands had a publisher mindset in the digital first world of today?

Cagri Cayir

AdoTai

TV/In-stream Wars: Winners & Losers

The TV Market is changing rapidly, with TV budgets moving to Digital and away from TV channels to new TV players ; is a total disruption to the so far value chain expectable? Who are winners & losers? There are many aspects to discuss.

Akancha Srivastava

Azure

Driving Social Change Through Digital Media

I lead India's largest social impact initiative against cyber harassment. With estimated 250 Mn Social Network Users & access to social apps at below 12 years of age- its a problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
I would like to share my journey of last one year and take your help in sourcing ideas on what more can be done.

Marcus Herrmann

TotallyAwesome

Welcome to the future: how kids are taking over the Internet

Today’s kids have never known a world without the internet. Smartphones are their favorite devices in most Asian markets. They are the fastest growing audience globally and are digitally engaged from the moment they can swipe a screen. How will this change our way of engaging with this new generation of consumers?

Can Brands influence social change? Are there examples? (global eg. Patagonia)

Roshan Abbas

Encompass

How can stories leverage data?

Businesses are ripe with data. And stories are data wrapped in context. How can Storytelling be used to better communicate data to the consumer. Is the world in need of a new set of data interpreters ? Do we need to bring more script and screenplay writers into our fold ? Or is it visualisers and instagrammers or snapchat stalwarts ? Let's find better ways to tell our stories.

Pablo Gomez

Kantar Millward Brown

Engineers vs Marketers... is advertising dying?

Data is important... is very important... we are moving to a world were AI and Machine learning will take the centre of our business, marketing and campaign decisions.
But is that the right approach? Are we moving to a world lead by engineers and not by marketers? Where is the creativity? How this is going to impact our brands? and consumers experience? Is advertising dying?

Taru Agarwal

Brands, Trust and Authenticity

Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan

Unmetric

Is Data Driven Creativity really happening? How so?

Good artists copy, great artists steal. This expression is as contentious as agreeing on who said it first. It is a fact that the canvas for new ideas is rapidly shrinking. Especially in the realm of content from brands where the increasing cadence of branded content often renders most new ideas into the "been there, done that" bucket of some other brand.
Aphorisms aside, we want to hear tangible anecdotes and workflows from attendees, ideally from creative teams and brand / content strategists or folks that work with them. Attendees should come prepared to share what kinds of data they're using in the creative process, and how - if at all. This discussion is essentially an attempt to render the often tossed "data driven creativity" with some real legs.

Divya Acharya

Are Robots/AI Going to Take Our Jobs?

Jaydeep Chaudhuri

MediaCom

Is it wise for large corporations to act like start-ups ?

It has become the buzzword in large organisations - in the quest to stay relevant and dynamic in a rapidly evolving landscape - to declare that they would re-organize to operate like a "nimble" start up ! Is that a good idea or a colossal waste of resources and opportunity - or is the answer significantly nuanced ?

Girish Menon

GroupM [m]PLATFORM

Can brand building survive in an era of hyper-informed consumers?

As consumers increasingly have access to all available product information and comparison data at their fingertips (as well as consumer reviews and subjective opinions), will the role of brand building die, especially for low-involvement categories, where Function is more important than Form? In that case, will brand building survive only for Luxury categories?

Raksha Kumar

Multimedia Journalist

Fail to understand the religious right? Try the lens of gender equality.

World over, the pendulum has swung towards the social right. Let's discuss how fundamentalist right wing ideology intersects uneasily with sexual equality.
In other words, having sexual equality can weaken the social conservative thought. Substantially.

Chris Jones

Wunderman

AI and Marketing Communications: Are we entering the age of "Cognitising"?

From programmatic advertising to dynamic creative, marketing automation to bots - we are seeing a shift towards a world where traditional marketing & advertising skills are becoming obsolete. Artificial Intelligence could soon be writing the strategy, creating the messaging and producing the visuals for digital campaigns. Advertising becomes "Cognitising" as machine learning takes over. Will there still be agencies when brands can reach their audience with highly tailored messages or micro-targeted offers at the push of a button? Or will a new type of brand communication arise that is created by humans for humans?

Oscar Ramos

Chinaaccelaration

Can startups and large organizations work together?

Everything is changing fast and newly born organizations are disrupting industries.
Ignoring them has led to great impact across industries, copying them has not been successful either working with them seems to be the next strategy: Accelerators, Pilots, Corporate Venture Capital... Some multinationals are getting it right and gaining competitive advantage but most still struggle.
Our organization sits in the middle of that conversation facilitating win-win collaboration between multinationals and startups. Happy to share some insights and cases across industries from FMCG to Pharma and collectively identify best practices.

Supachramanee Srivali

Dutch Mill

Reaching and Convincing Consumers

Consumers are skeptical of whatever advertisers are saying, hence the rise of micro influencers and WOMON. How should manufacturers and advertisings change the way they think and work to get around this.

pavan kumar

workbench projects pvt ltd

Technology in Mythology - Back to the future with inspiration from the past

Entering the era of quantum super computing, hyper/mixed reality, crypto currency, data as services, AI towards singularity, and the list goes on, on one side.
We also enter the era of super conciseness, critical/design thinking, steps to reverse planned obsolescence, conscious consumerism, decentralised databases like blockchain, clean energy, circular economy, data as barter etc., on the other side.
In this discussion the facilitator will ignite the sense of curiosity and question with examples of possible technology mentions in ancient texts/times and "how they could have done it;" to finally draw inspiration from them to sculpt the way we look at the applied future from the lens we all wear.

Ajanta De

Innersight

Rewriting your life script

How does childhood messaging like "you didn't win the silver, you lost the gold" or " snap out of it" or "humility is the biggest virtue of all" impact you ? Does it shape your thoughts, feelings and behaviour as an adult? How do you rewrite your life script?

Dolly Tayal

Burson Marsteller

The evolution of the PR professional: The shifting skillset required of today’s PR pros

The role of PR moving from being a post box to deliver news via various mediums has dramatically changed and evolved over the last few years. From PR to influencer management to delivering the message across stakeholder group, the definition itself has gone through a serious change. So what does it take to be a PR professional today?

Pranay Swarup

Chtrbox.com

Knowing today's Gen-Z youth / tomorrow's consumer !

Those born in 2000 just turned into full grown adults! They're 18, and, possibly (and hopefully), will be voting more than their predecessors.
Millennials are old, many married with kids, and brands seem to just be figuring them out. What will the Gen-Z a.k.a Centennials be like? What lingo would brands need to talk them in, through what media? How will technology, psychology, culture, advertising, consumption - et all evolve?
Through this discussion, let's us oldies dive into the future, by better understanding the future :)

Prateek Agarwal

National Skill Development Corporation

How do you communicate with Incommunicado

A large population of India still lives in media dark areas, with almost zero literacy and limited access to radio or television. While the reach of mobile phones increasing across India, the medium has been partially successful in communicating short messages through mobile radio, video etc.
It would be interesting to explore how advancement in technology could be leveraged to reach out to people in the media dark areas and others at the bottom of the pyramid.

Girish Menon

GroupM [m]PLATFORM

Simplifying Technology

As our world becomes increasingly complex, it becomes even more critical to make this complex technology accessible to our clients and agency planners. But it's a real challenge to explain a complex concept using limited jargon and few words. This is perhaps the biggest barrier to adoption of new tech in the world of advertising and brand building. How do we get past this challenge?

Caspar Schlickum

Wunderman

Powerpoint Karaoke

Simple and one of those great activities where its not even possible to prepare!
Your role: Present a slide deck you have never seen before.
My role: make and bring the decks and a clicker.
Yes, its the famous (infamous) POWERPOINT KARAOKE.

Gowthaman Ragothaman

WPP

Blockchain in Media, Advertising and Marketing

Blockchain is NOT equal to BitCoin. Wherever there is a data structure that is maintained by more than one set of people, who don't trust each other and/OR who don't want to part with the information in full (read privacy) Blockchain technology will be required to manage it better. Real Estate, Aadhaar, News, Content and Advertising...not necessarily in this order...

Chetan Mahajan

Himalayan Writing Retreat

Is too much data drowning the story?

Our world has too much data. Every little aspect of our life has been digitized and analysed. Yet we remain social & irrational. Emotions drive much of our decision-making. We look for inspiration and wisdom. We seek meaning and human connections. Is there a common ground where data and stories can meet?

Chetan Mahajan

Himalayan Writing Retreat

Everyone wants to be a writer. But fewer people read. What does this mean for the book?

Half of humanity wants to be published authors. But the reading habit is dwindling. Mobiles are replacing books as a source of information and entertainment. What is the solution to this? Can technology go from being the problem to becoming a solution? And what will that mean for the future of the book?